Washing machine



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' in 1 24 7 f1 Y United States Patent WASHING MACHINE David Tann, Detroit, Mich., assignor to Avco Manufacturing Corporation, Cincinnati, Ohio, a corporation of Delaware Application October 6, 1955, Serial No. 538,864

58 Claims. ('Cl. 68--'19) This invention relates to fabric cleaning devices, and particularly to a cleansing device which is operated at a constant speed automatically to produce a cleansing, rinsing, extracting and drying operation on fabrics.

This application is a continuation-in-part and a consolidation of subject matter of my co-pending applications Serial No. 155,682, filed April 13, 1950, and Serial No. 306,118, filed August 25, 1952, both now abandoned. Reference is also made to my co-pending applications, Serial No. 422,556, filed April 12, 1954, and Serial No. 463,172, filed October 19, 1954, which are divisional applications based on Serial No. 155,682 and Serial No. 306,118, respectively.

Difliculty has been experienced when utilizing automatic types of fabric cleansing machines which incorporate damp-drying in the cycle of operation since the best known principle of extraction was that produced centrifugally by increasing the speed of rotation of the rotor. When low extracting speeds were employed, the extracting operation produced only a partial removal of excess fluid so that more than a pound of fluid remained in each pound of fabrics. When higher extracting speeds were employed, bringing the extracting ratio below a pound of fluid per pound of fabrics, damage due to stretching and tearing resulted to the fabrics because of the increased forces applied thereto. Further, the increased speed employed for extraction required costly clutch and gear mechanisms, as well as controls, and also made it necessary to anchor the machine in some manner to the floor. This required the actual bolting of the machine to the floor or the provision of cups or other means which prevented the machine from traveling thereover.

When practicing the present invention, extraction is produced at the same speed utilized for the cleansing operation. A belt of absorbing material is disposed in engagement with the peripheral wall of the rotor in which the fabrics are tumbled as the belt and rotor are driven in synchronism. During the washing or cleansing operation, the belt may be driven to drive the rotor at a predetermined speed to produce the proper raising and tumbling of the fabrics through the cleansing fluid. Thereafter, the fluid is drained from the tub in which the rotor operates and extraction is produced by the absorption of the water in the fabrics through the permeable peripheral wall of the rotor by the belt which takes up the fluid which passes through the wall.

A pair of pressure rollers may be employed which function as wringer rolls for squeezing the fluid from the belt as it is advanced therethrough. Suction or other means may also be employed for removing the fluid from the fabrics and belt or other absorbing element. The driving of the rollers produces the driving of the belt and the rotation of the rotor. The belt may be disposed about the entire peripheral wall of the rotor and the rollers employed in engagement with the wall and belt to extract the fluid therefrom, or the belt may encompass the greater portion of the peripheral wall and have a portion extending therefrom which passes through the wringer rolls or 2,758,461 Patented Aug. 14, 1956 moved across fluid extracting means, or a short loop of belt may be utilized in engagement with only a portion of the peripheral wall.

A portion of the fabrics is constantly being raised along one side of the rotor or drum as the rotor is driven in rotation in one direction from which they tumble near the top of the rotor or drum downwardly across the rotor axis to the lower opposite side of the rotor. The falling of the fabrics upon the pervious peripheral wall will cause the fluid thereof to be forced toward and through the wall onto the belt. When a short loop of belt is utilized, it is preferably disposed at the portion of the periphery onto which the fabrics are tumbled.

The pervious wall may be made of moisture-absorbing material, such as fabric, or it may be made of metal having apertures therethrough, or it may be made of apertured metal having fabric on the inner wall to prevent buttons and string-ends of the fabrics from projecting through the apertures. A solid wall may be employed having an inner fabric lining against which a roller is pressed as the rotor or drum is oscillated an amount less than 360 for squeezing the fluid directly from the inner fabric, the fluid thus extracted being conducted from the interior of the rotor.

It is also within the purview of the invention to have the wall and belt provided with suction cups and apertures so that the suction cup, if in the belt, can be flattened, or the belt can be forced into the suction recesses of the peripheral wall, by a roller applied against the belt at the point where the fabrics are tumbled onto the rotor for producing a suction on the fluid in the fabrics. It is apparent, therefore, that various types of structures may be employed for practicing the invention which embodies the extraction of fluid from fabrics within a rotor by absorbing the fluid from the fabrics and removing the fluid from the absorbing medium while operating the machine at a slow constant speed.

Automatic means are employed for operating the machine through the cycle, which may be produced by a mechanical timing means or by electric timing means, both of which are old in the art. Simplified control mechanism is utilized; for example, the initial fluid level is controlled manually, the depth of the rinse water is controlled by an overflow drain pipe provided at a predetermined height in the tub, and pulleys and belts are employed to produce the rotation of the rotor at a constant speed throughout the entire cycle of operation of the machine. A sump may be employed for retaining the suds when a washing operation is employed, or the cleansing fluid when a cleansing operation is to be utilized, and it is to be understood that the machine may be employed as a clothes washing machine or as a dry-cleaning machine, depending upon the fluid which is employed. Therefore, it is to be understood that when a washing operation is described for a machine, a similar cycle of operation may be utilized for producing a dry-cleaning operation upon the fabrics.

It is within the purview of the invention to utilize a drying system for the fabrics after the cleansing operation so that a complete cycle of cleansing, rinsing, wetdrying and complete drying may be performed by the machine. Preferably a blower is driven by the same motor which drives the rotor for producing a flow of air through the tub and container, over the fabrics. The air is heated by a gas burner or by an electric heating element or other means before being directed into the machine. A lint trap may be provided in the outlet conduit of the drying system which receives a predetermined depth of the fluid drained from the tub onto which the return air from the tub is directed so that the lint thereof may be. 

